followed all the rules and hair still shedding

[sylviaetc]

i had my hair touched up 2 weeks ago. before i did i applied an aphogee treatment 1 wk before, i kept my scalp moisturized with castor oil. afterwards, i applied keraphix one week later followed by a moisturizing conditioner. etc
but with all of those failsafes being recognized my hair is still shedding like crazy. does anyone have any suggestions?

btw; i've kept my scalp oiled and my ends moisturized. and i did a deep conditioning right after rinsing out the relaxer. the experience itself went well, it's just the "morning after" thats going to pot... HELP!

 

[inthestars]

What sort of food do you eat? Are you on any medication? For me, diet pills made my hair fall out.

 

[Islandgirl]

is your hair overprocessed? how long did you have the neutralizer in your hair? did you have someone look at your hair and examine it? how is your diet? are you stressed out? low on iron?

ps. i definitely would check to see if it was overprocessed if i were you

 

[cutebajangirl]

I agree overprocessing could be the culprit as well as underprocessing leading to breakage. Also you may have done more than you mentioned but I think maybe you need to moisturize more. I find that when I revert back to using grease on the scalp and something on the ends that I ignore the hair between scalp and ends and end up with breakage there.
Wait a minute... I just relized you said shedding as in from the roots. It probably is normal unless you are on some kind of meds.

 

[sylviaetc]

sorry ladies, for the belated response but my computer shut down right after i signed off the night i wrote this and i had to pay someone to get it up and running again.

in case your still interested... i read the responses and although i do take meds, i've been on the same one for the past 15yrs and my hair has never shed like this. i could be blowing things out of proportion; i just read a post about losing hairs and such and it could be just normal everyday loss. i'm going to try doing some con washes and see what happens. since i've stopped doing the braidout/24-7 thing i'm in my hair more and i don't add as much moisture to it as i did then because i don't want to weigh it down etc; that could be the culprit. i'll keep in touch

Thanx again...

 

[Isis]

When my hair was shedding like that in the past, I learned it was coming from the inside, rather than what I was putting on my hair. For me I needed to take iron supplements and when I did, the shedding stopped. As some mentioned, you may want to check your iron levels, see if you have any hormonal changes, look at what you are eating and make sure you are getting all of your nutrition.

 

[ChasingBliss]

I agree with Isis as well, also I read somewhere that you can be taking the same medication (without problems) for years but as we grow older we naturally go through hormonal changes and those changes can all of a sudden cause different reactions in our bodies to that same medication.

 

[Nonie]

I'm sorry if anyone's tired of hearing me say this but maybe someone missed it so I'll say it again.

SHEDDING cannot be stopped. It HAS to happen because hair strands have a life cycle. Each strand grows for some years, rests for a while then gets spit out by the follicle. The follicle then rests awhile before producing a new baby hair strand with a new life cycle of its own. This happens to every strand on your head and they are at different stages of that cycle. About 10% of them are resting at every moment waiting to be SHED, while the other 90% are in the growing stage. That's why you never shed all your hair at once.

So the only time you should panic about shedding is if you think you are shedding over 100 hairs a day (and you'll have to collect them and count; seriously) or if your hair is thinning. But you must also keep in mind, that if you do not manipulate your hair for sometime, your daily shed quota stays caught in your style so that when you do manipulate it, you may appear to shed a lot more hair that day. But that's just all the shed hair from the days you hardly moved your hair, so again, nothing to "lose your hair about". (Pun intended

)

BREAKAGE on the other hand is NOT normal and that's where good hair care practices can help. And you will know the difference because shed hair has a bulb at the end where it was attached to your head, while BROKEN hair strands don't.

HTH give everyone a peace of mind.

 

[Jade21]

Nonie,

Maybe we need to come up with better terms because Sylvia is obviously talking about EXCESSIVE shedding. At least, at one point, she FELT she was having excessive SHEDDING for her.

Frankly, I can't say that I agree with the 100 hairs per day rule or even 50-100 hairs per day as shedding within the normal range. Generally, especially if you are aware of your hair, you know what is normal for YOU.

I think if I were losing 100 hair strands per day, I would be wondering what was happening. But, that's just for me. I've got plenty of friends whose daily shedding is nearly double the 100 deal and their hair is healthy and growing extremely well. But, it's always been that way for them.

~Jade~

 

[Nonie]

Jade, I get that 50-100 hairs per day number from various sources. But like with everything, there are deviations. Some trichologists feel 150 is also "safe". There are people that don't shed as much as 50 even. Still, unless people realize that shedding happens no matter what you do, then there's gonna be a lot of stress-related shedding caused by worrying about shedding. That could lead to excessive shedding that mightn't have happened if one realized that shedding daily was normal.

You're right, if someone does notice a sudden change in the amount they normally shed, then something could be amiss. That's why I also said that one time to worry about shedding is if your hair is thinning. That would no doubt happen if your normal shedding increased to an abnormal rate all of a sudden.

I guess if one isn't sure about whether the shedding is normal, like with everything else, one should see a doctor and let him/her give a professional opinion.

The reason I decided to reiterate about shedding is because Sylviaetc stated that she may have been overreacting (or sth to that effect coz she read another thread about normal shedding). [ QUOTE ]
<font color="blue"> i could be blowing things out of proportion; i just read a post about losing hairs and such and it could be just normal everyday loss. </font>

[/ QUOTE ] That led me to think that there may be someone out there who may also need to know that shedding some hair is normal and inevitable.

 

[zora]

Sylvia,

Are you hypo or hyper thyroid? If not, try to get the test to rule that out.

 

[sylviaetc]

after reading your post, i decided to take a good look at the hair that came out under a magnifying glass to see if it had a "bulb" attatched; some of it did but most of it didn't. still, i'm not sure if my hair is breaking off or not because when i pull on one of the hairs that came out it was really hard to break, somewhat like a rubber band. i'm confused... i guess i'll look into the thyroid test someone mentioned; and talk to my doctor about whether i have a vitamin deficiency. anythings' possible...
thanx for your advice

 

[UmSumayyah]

Some people notice a reduction in shedding when they cut down or cut out the processed sugar (she said, eating her cookies and cream ice cream as she typed... )

 

[sylviaetc]

lol, umsumayyah... i heard that as well(she replied while eating her 3rd piece of french cheese cake)maybe, i'll try it(after i polish off the second cheese cake; hey it was buy one get one free lol)

 

[buffalosoldier]

It may be a telegen effluviam. I had this 2 years ago --your hair literally comes out from the root -- bulb and all

It is worse when you wash your hair and when you comb it. Your hair also feels totally different almost like it is dead and doesnt respond to any of your usual products or deep conditioning treatments etc etc.
This can be soul destroying but if this is what you have dont despair. It will only last for about 3 months if that and then your hair will return to normal. My hair is super thick and I didnt notice any difference when it stopped. You just have to stay positive and let nature run its course.

 

[Nonie]

Good point, Buffalosoldier. If it is, or even anagen effluvium, at least if you find the cause, you can stop it. Check out this page on The Trichological Society website for more info on the causes.

 

[sylviaetc]

thanx buffalosoldier and nonie, i'll have to look into that
in the meantime i'll be seeing my doctor tomorrow. here's hoping she has an answer...

 

[buffalosoldier]

[ QUOTE ]
sylviaetc said:
thanx buffalosoldier and nonie, i'll have to look into that
in the meantime i'll be seeing my doctor tomorrow. here's hoping she has an answer...

[/ QUOTE ]

Your welcome. Not to be too negative but dont expect too much from your Dr. Neither my Dr or my specialist were of any help at all. they dont tend to take it very seriously. Initially i panicked and went and bought nioxin poo and con also some rogaine (now I can laugh about it) All a waste of money really.
Then I took matters into my own hands -surfed the web and did my own diagnosis. I accepted that my hair was falling out,kept it slicked back in a ponytail, and just waited for it to stop. The worse thing you can do is stress.
keep your head up